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The Staircase Murders

Tom McLoughlin(2007)

102min

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Review

Our Score

by Sloan Freer

Treat Williams delivers a considered and enigmatic performance in this dry yet twisting true-crime drama. He plays a bestselling American novelist and aspiring politician who is suspected of murdering his socialite wife. However, as the lies and manipulation slowly unravel in the face of growing evidence, it's his conceited character's continual denial and pretence that keep the narrative absorbing. Ably supported by Kevin Pollak as his unprincipled defence lawyer, Williams elevates an otherwise episodic and pedestrian TV feature. But with the duo's behaviour powered by artifice and variable acting from the rest of the cast, there's little authentic emotion to elicit any empathy, even for the grieving family members.

Summary

A novelist becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his socialite wife, but insists she fell down the stairs in a drunken stupor. When even his own stepdaughter doubts his innocence, he tries to clear his reputation by hiring a film-maker to document his preparation for the trial - only for shocking revelations to come to light. Fact-based thriller, starring Treat Williams, Kevin Pollak and Samaire Armstrong.